London pre-open: FTSE set for flat start

17th Apr 2012 07:39

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open flat, at the same level as yesterday's close of 5,666, as investors await fresh direction from the market. The tills are still ringing like billy-o in the food halls of retail bellwether Marks and Spencer, but the group confessed that trading in other parts of the store was more mixed in the first three months of 2011. Like-for-like sales in the UK were down 0.7% on the first quarter of 2011, with food sales up 1.0% while general merchandise sales were down 2.8%. The market had expected food sales to grow 1.5% and general merchandise sales to dip 0.5% on a like-for-like basis. Underlying revenue growth at luxury brand Burberry eased in the fourth quarter owing to a slowdown in growth at its Wholesale division. Total revenue grew to £1,027m in second half ended March 31st, from £877m in the same period the year before and up 18% on an underlying basis. However, in the third quarter alone, underlying growth was 21%.Oil explorer Afren's high impact Simrit-2 exploration well, located on the Ain Sifni production sharing contract in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, has discovered a significant oil accumulation based on the results of drilling, wireline logs and sidewall core sampling.